The Nymph
by Koneko Yuy
Summary: Heero is a nymph with a curse where he can only repeat what someone says to him. Duo's a spoiled prince who only loves himself. What happens when the two meet? Yaoi, shonen ai


The Nymph  
By Koneko Yuy

Disclaimers: Don't own nothing. Don't own the Greek myth I've chosen to destroy, don't own the boys that are helping me destroy it. All I own is..... *looks* An empty box of fortune cookies, a few cds, a couple pics of Peraru from Sailor Moon Super S, various anime stuff, and a teddy bear..... ;;  
Author's Notes: I blame this all on someone! Who, I have no clue yet. ^^;; Maybe I'll blame my WinAmp with its' pretty song that are screaming songfics. Including Liquid Dreams by O-Town... ^^;; *starts to sing along with said WinAmp as she types*  
Dedications: This is dedicated to Wu, who has pointed out on more than one occasion that I seem to make Heero a 'poor, mistreated lonely boy with a horrible past'. Wu, it's ALL your fault! ^^

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful nymph named Heero. He truly loved life and everything about it. Of all of the nymphs the king of the Gods favored, Heero was his most favorite. Not only was Heero beautiful, he had a wit that everyone wanted and a brilliant brain.

One day, King Zechs, the king of the Gods, was consorting with one of Heero's many sisters and had Heero keep an eye out for Noin, Zechs' queen. Heero had not long to wait before Noin appeared not too far away from where he was waiting.

"Good morn, Queen Noin." Heero said in a loud voice so that Zechs and Heero's sister could get away and not incur Noin's wrath.

"Yes..." Noin replied, studying Heero in silence for a moment. "You're..... Heero, aren't you?"

Heero gave a curt boy. "Yes'm. How may I help you, my Queen?"

Noin was thoughtful again before answering the youth. "I'm looking for my husband. Have you seen him?"

Heero's blue eyes widened. "No, your grace! I haven't! Isn't he up on Mount Olympus where he should be?" He asked her curiously.

She shook her head. "No, he's not. I've had word that he's been to see you already this day, Nymph. Have you any clue if he has?"

Heero shook his head quickly. "No, your grace! He has not! I think I would know if he had. But he hasn't." Heero sounded depressed.

Noin stared at him a moment before her grey eyes widened. "He HAS been here!" She cried. Heero's Prussian blue eyes widened in fear lest she turn her wrath on him. Her eyes narrowed as she stared him down. "He has been here and you've been talking to me so he can escape, haven't you?"

Heero shook his head rapidly. "N-no!" He stammered, but it was too late. Noin had seen through his lie and he knew it.

"A pity a voice like yours has to be taken away." Noin murmured, studying him softly. "But, for this trickery you will pay dearly. Every conversation you have with anyone will only result in you being able to repeat only the last thing that person says." She told him as she put her fateful curse on him.

"Person says...." Heero said sadly, repeating her final words before she disappeared, laughing cruelly.

Heero spent the next days of his existance crestfallen. A friend of his, an Oreade named Phobos, tried all she could to cheer him up, but as he could only repeat her last words in all of her sentences, she couldn't help.

Phobos chewed on her lower lip as she played with a few loose strands of her long, wavy green hair as her deep blue eyes studied the depressed form of her closest friend. "I'm really sorry that she did this to you." She told him.

"To you." Heero repeated, looking at her in a dejected way.

She sighed. "I'm only trying to help."

"To help." Heero narrowed his eyes at her.

"I wish you didn't have to repeat everything I say! It's annoying!" She cried.

"Annoying!" Heero could only repeat her words.

She sighed again, getting to her feet. "I have to go find Artemis now. Good day." She told him as she left.

"Good day...." Heero's words echoed after her.

Elsewhere in the forest, a prince was hunting with friends. This prince, named Duo, was very beautiful in an otherworldly way and he knew it. His beauty was what he prided himself on. On this particular day, he and his friends were hunting a deer that had wandered too close to Duo's kingdom and Duo had gotten lost.

"Where am I?" He moaned.

"Am I...." The trees seemed to echo back at him.

Heero looked up as he spoke. He quickly got up and headed in the direction of the prince and would have gasped if not for his cruel curse. There stood a boy, as beautiful as he was, with long chestnut brown hair and piercing violet eyes. Heero peered around the tree he hid behind, looking to see if anyone else was around, but for what it looked like, the boy was alone, or worse, lost. Heero bit his lower lip as he watched the boy look around the glade.

Duo sighed. "Where am I?" He repeated.

"Am I...." Someone seemed to answer him.

Duo blinked. "Who's there?" He called.

"There." Heero said before he could stop himself.

Duo's eyes narrowed. "Show yourself."

"Yourself." Heero repeated softly as he stepped from the trees and into the glade.

Duo was astonished, to say the very least. The last thing he'd expected to step from the trees was the gorgeous boy standing in front of him. In fact, the boy's beauty almost rivaled his own...

"Who are you?" Duo asked the boy.

"Are you." The boy repeated, his blue eyes almost sad behind the messy brown hair.

"I asked you who you were!" Duo scolded the boy.

"You were!" Heero couldn't help but repeat the boy's words.

"Fine." Duo shook his head. "Just repeat my last words."

"Last words..." Heero repeated, too soft to be almost heard. Deep down, he knew he was annoying this beautiful boy, but that curse stopped him from telling his name.

Duo snorted. "I'm leaving!" Duo told him. "Good bye!" Duo growled as he stormed off into the forest once more, leaving the sad nymph behind him.

"Good bye...." Heero echoed after him before running off to a nearby cave in tears.

Duo was so mad that he didn't even notice storming into a girl seated beside a pool. With a cry, the girl tumbled into the pool rather ungracefully, splashing him as she fell in.

Duo blinked as he realized what he'd just done as the girl slowly climbed out of the pool. The girl's long, loose green hair was sopping wet, clinging to her slim form like the plain short dress that covered the very feminine form. The girl's blue eyes bored into him rather angrily as she stood up, approaching him in her anger.

"What in the world do you think you were doing, not watching where you going?! It's a WONDER I'm not DEAD by you!" She yelled at him, making him wince under her hateful words.

He pulled himself up to his full height as she finished her unslaught on him. "Well, it's none of your business, but it would seem that I have a thing of running into MOST unusual people today!" He growled at her. "First, I run into a boy who can do nothing, it would seem, but repeat everything I said, and then I slam into you, knocking you into that pool and you yell at me!"

The girl started. "A boy.... repeated everything you said?" She repeated in a whisper.

"Don't you start!" He warned her.

She shook her head. "No. A wood nymph I know has a curse on him where he can only repeat someone's last words. You must have run into him."

Duo snorted. "Oh really? Should I actually care?"

She glared up at him. "You should. Everyone in this forest loves that nymph, especially her Ladyship Artemis. You'd do well to remember that." She told him harshly.

Duo blinked. "R-really..? This is Lady Artemis' forest?" He stammered.

"Close enough." The girl told him. "We Oreades were running through here earlier with her, so I would assume this may very well be her forest."

Duo gulped. "So there's a chance I just got made at a favorite of hers?"

"If you yelled at the nymph I think you did, you did a very good job of getting Lord Zechs mad at you." She told him curtly, starting to leave.

He grabbed her arm. "So it's not his fault he could only repeat everything I said?"

"No." She glared over her shoulder at him, yanking her arm back. "Leave go. I have business in this forest to attend to."

Duo let her go as the vision of the boy he had gotten mad at came to his mind unbidden. The boy couldn't tell him his name.... "What was his name?" He asked on a sudden whim.

"H-heero." The girl blinked, confused. "Why?"

Duo smirked at her. "You said he had a curse on him, right?" At the girl's nod, he went on. "Most curses have a way to take them off, right? Even if they are from the gods."

"Well...." The girl blinked, confused again. "Maybe."

"Well..." Duo practially drawled. "He wasn't that bad looking, if I do say so myself, and.... If I can, I'll try and get that curse off him and then marry him."

The girl's mouth dropped open. "You... you would? I mean, marry him? I mean..." The girl babbled, purely shocked.

Duo nodded. "Yeah." He blinked at the girl. "Is there something evil about him I should know?"

The girl shook her head. "N-no! I mean, he'd be very happy! But..."

Duo gave her a look. "What?"

"Queen Noin put the curse on Heero!" It came out in a rush, causing the prince to blink.

"She... she did?" He stammered, staring wide eyed at the girl, who nodded.

"But there's usually a way to get around her curses." The girl told him, slyly. "If you want, I'll try to find out how."

Duo nodded. "Yeah. Then... Could you go to my palace and let me know?"

The girl nodded and quickly ran off, leaving Duo alone.

The next day, the first thing Duo saw in his room was a small closed box with a note next to it. On the note, in simple handwriting, were the words, 'In this box, there is a small glass of water from the river Styx. Do not open this box if you truly want to save Heero. If you open the box, the curse will still prevail over him and you will never get another chance to save him.' It was signed simply, 'A friend'.

Duo studied the box all morning. He was curious about the water and the glass, but something about the simple handwriting warned him that the girl had indeed been serious when she told him not to open the box. And he did want to help Heero out, so he didn't. That afternoon, he snuck out of the palace with the box hidden under his cloak.

Not far into the forest, the girl from yesterday awaited him. Standing next to her was a small white filly and a small black colt. "Wing." She indicated the filly. "And Shinigami." She indicated the colt. "These are the wedding presents from the gods to you and Heero, provided you didn't open the box." She told him, eyeing him.

He shook his head as he showed her the still closed box. A small smile played on her face. "Good then. Follow me." Shinigami whickered as the girl turned and walked off, Duo not far behind her.

Wing nuzzled Duo's hand as the two reached a small cave. The girl leaned against the side of the cave and called into it. "Heero! Are you here?"

"Here..." Heero's voice echoed from inside the cave.

Duo watched as the girl slipped into the cave and soon came out, pulling a rather reluctant boy with her. It was the boy from yesterday that he had gotten mad at it, but the boy hadn't looked this sad. It was almost like he hadn't eaten in days, much less hours.

Duo smiled at the boy. "Hello."

Like he knew the boy would do, the boy looked sadly at him, a small sad smile on his face. "....Hello." He echoed Duo's words.

The girl stared at Duo, then her eyes flicked to the closed box, then to Heero. Duo realized what she was doing and handed the box to Heero. "Here. This is for you."

"For you..." Heero echoed Duo curiously, slowly opening the box. Inside, against the black velvet lining of the box, rested a small covered glass. The blue eyes raised to the girl who gestured for him to drink the glass. He did so, very carefully.

Duo could only watch on as the boy in front of him drained the small glass, then the glass fell from limp fingers and the boy's eyes fluttered close. The boy's slim body pitched forward and Duo was barely able to catch the boy in time.

The girl gasped. "Heero!" She was by their side in an instant. "Are you ok?" Her voice was worried.

"I'm... fine...." The nymph moaned, then his eyes snapped open, looking up into Duo's. "I...." The boy's hands went to his own throat. "I can...."

The girl nodded and Duo smiled. "That's better. Now you're not repeating everything I say."

Heero looked up at Duo and smiled back. "I guess not." He leaned forward toward Duo. "Now, I can ask you a question. What's your name?"

"Duo." Duo told him happily.

"Duo....." Heero echoed, savoring the name on his tongue.

"Duo and Heero." The girl said, smiling herself. "You know, you two do have the gods' premission to have your faerie tale end happily ever after." She told them.

Heero looked at her, wide eyed. "Really, Phobos?"

Phobos nodded, laughing as Wing trotted up to nuzzle Heero's hand. Shinigami nuzzled Duo's hair."Yes." She told him. "King Zechs has already said that you're allowed to marry this prince if you choose to."

Heero sat up, looking deep into Duo's eyes. "Then.... I do."

"And I too." Duo added, looking deep into Heero's own eyes.

The next day, the nymph and his prince were married, surrounded by gods, demigods, and mortals, and the two lived happily ever after, while the gods and demigods visited them constantly and Phobos, who lived nearby, was always welcome in Duo's castle because she had helped to bring the two together.

The End

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Footnotes

Oreades were nymphs that ran with Artemis in the forests. Little Greek fact for ya.

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Ok, so in the REAL version of this, Echo wasted away for lack of love and Narcissus got turned into a flower because he scorned Echo's love over his own beauty. But my muses didn't quite care for THAT ending so....

Akoya: THAT ending is horrible and I refuse to do it.  
Narmacil: Why wouldn't you let me help with this, Ko?  
Ko: Because everyone in this would die if I had let you, Narmy-chan...  
Narmacil: Cruel.  
Narehendu: It's supposed to be a romance fic, not a death fic. *baps Narmacil* That's why I got ta help Ko.  
Ko: Basically. ^^;;  
Narmacil: *cries* CRUEL!  
Narehendu: *holds up a sign for the audience to read* [Narmacil does not like to admit he's a horrible muse. ^^]  
Akoya: *snickers*  
Ko: *giggles*  
Narmacil: HEY!!!!!  
Narehendu: ^^


End file.
